Passwords have historically been the gateway to accounts; however we’ve shown that some of the most common passwords and security questions are easy to guess, which leaves accounts potentially vulnerable to hijackers.

Keeping our users and partners secure is a top priority for us and we continue to work hard to help you keep the bad guys out. 2-Step Verification (2SV) is one of the best ways to protect your account from hackers. 2SV combines both ‘something you know’ (like a password) and ‘something you have’ (like your phone or security key). Think of it like withdrawing money from an ATM/cash machine, where you need both your PIN and your bank card.

Millions of businesses use our advertising service, Google AdWords to display their businesses in Search and improve their reach globally. As part of our commitment to our AdWords customers and to demonstrate how easy it is to adopt better security standards, we distributed 2SV security keys to 60 of our largest ad agencies across four countries (UK, Spain, USA, Mexico). The agencies found the keys to be a useful security feature and have implemented 2SV into everyday practices. Here’s the story of two UK ad agencies that piloted this program.

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Jellyfish is a full service digital marketing agency with offices in the UK, US and South Africa, and with over 250 staff, Jellyfish prides itself on its dynamic approach—responding to clients’ needs in an ever-changing digital landscape. Ranked the number one digital agency in the UK by The Drum Digital Elite in 2015, Jellyfish boasts an influential client roster including: Nestle, Motors.co.uk, Gatwick Airport, National Geographic, Zipcar etc.

As an agency with paid search as its heritage, Jellyfish utilises Google AdWords to help clients run efficient campaigns and generate the maximum return on investment through search and display opportunities. With the bulk of its clients utilising AdWords accounts, Jellyfish wanted to establish good security practices. Richard Hartley, PPC Director at Jellyfish notes: “AdWords has been the most effective means of running campaigns for our clients. With so much data and personal information involved, we wanted to make the safety of these campaigns a priority.”

Jellyfish consulted with Google’s Trust & Safety team on the best way to protect their clients. Tariq Mohammed, PPC Manager at Jellyfish notes: “Security is always of utmost importance to ourselves and our clients. Any of our accounts being hacked could have a massively harmful effect on our clients, and hence it is something we take very seriously. Anything at all that we can do to help safeguard the security of our clients’ data and spend will be grasped by Jellyfish with both hands.”

Google provided 2SV via security keys, to all Jellyfish clients who were AdWords account holders. “Account hijackers are highly motivated and equipped. The best added protection for accounts is 2SV as it prevents unwanted, third party access,” says Zeyneb Temnenko, Accounts Analyst within Google’s Trust & Safety team. “Enabling 2SV will undoubtedly give Jellyfish the security needed to run clients’ campaigns safely without any concerns about unauthorised account access.”

The introduction of the security keys has had a real impact on the Jellyfish team. “Having already rolled the 2-step verification across every single one of our AdWords logins, we already knew the great benefits of using features like the Authenticator app. Having a physical key that we could link to multiple AdWords accounts, even in the case of us not having our phones, helps us run the account easier,” says Hartley. “The security key emphasises deeper security culture and because it’s a physical device, our staff members are always conscious of it,” added Mohammed.

Jellyfish has rolled out the security keys to all team members in the UK and South Africa, with plans to roll it out across the US office. “When winning new business, I’ve no doubt the keys show just how seriously we take security and therefore the careful management of their accounts and data – it sets us apart from other agencies in the market,” says Hartley.

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Based in Regent’s Place, the thriving heart of London’s commercial sector, iProspect is a global digital marketing agency, driving digital performance for some of the world’s largest advertisers across over 50 markets. Its heritage lies in paid search, with 100% of its UK clients taking advantage of search and display opportunities through the Adwords platform.

With Google AdWords accounts playing such an important part in the organisation’s business, it was critical to ensure the security of the clients’ data and their campaigns. Scott Abbott, Head of of Global PPC notes: “The activity we run through AdWords—be it in Google Search, through YouTube, Google Display Network or in Gmail—is crucial to our clients’ business. With over 80 clients and over 900 AdWords accounts, it’s imperative that we take our clients’ data and security seriously. A maliciously compromised login has the potential to put our clients’ business and reputation at risk so security is a big priority for us.”

Google’s Trust & Safety team provided iProspect with security keys to enable 2SV to keep clients’ accounts safe. “2-step verification provides an extra layer of security to prevent unwanted third party access to an account. This in turn prevents the phishing of login credentials and access codes through lookalike sites,” says Google’s Zeyneb Temnenko. “By enabling 2SV, iProspect are securing their clients’ accounts and guaranteeing peace of mind with regards to the safety of their data.”

The introduction of 2SV has dramatically mitigated the risk of logins being compromised through malicious attack. Maeve Ayton, PPC Account Director notes: “Adding 2-step verification with the security keys has given us peace of mind that our Google accounts are secure. It has also increased our clients’ confidence that we are continuing to take every opportunity to protect their data. Another benefit is that one key can be used across multiple accounts ensuring all accounts a user requires access to remain as secure as possible.”

“Introduction of the security keys has been a valued initiative. Even though we anticipate a future with more sophisticated phishing attempts and aggressive tactics to compromise accounts, we are confident that together with Google, we are up to the task of ensuring the safety of our clients’ accounts,” says Abbott.

You can find out more about Google’s 2SV process here. And if you are an AdWords user, you can purchase security keys for your account from several manufacturers such as Yubico or buy them on Amazon.

Reaching your most valuable and engaged customers at the moment they’re ready to act is critical in moving them along the path to a purchase. Remarketing lists for search ads (RLSA) and Customer Match can help you do that by customizing your campaigns for people who’ve previously interacted with your business. However, getting started can be time-consuming, especially if you have a lot of ad groups. To make it easier for you to manage your audience lists at scale, you can now apply them at the campaign level.

Campaign-level audience lists also make it easy to measure and change your bid adjustments. Instead of trying to change your bid adjustments for each individual ad group, you can confidently optimize at the campaign level where you’re more likely to have enough data to make an informed decision. Learn more audience bid adjustment best practices here.

Many advertisers are already using campaign-level search audiences to save time and make better optimizations:

“Campaign-level audiences have proven to be a great way to apply our remarketing lists at scale. Our campaigns often contain so many ad groups - using RLSA in the past required hours spent applying audiences to each one and analyzing the results by ad group. By applying them at the campaign level, we can be confident that no ad group is overlooked, while saving us time that can be better spent on helping our customers find their new home.”– Debra Carroll, Senior SEM Manager at Redfin

“Being able to apply all of our audiences at the campaign level has drastically simplified the process of adding lists to multiple campaigns, as most of our campaigns have hundreds of ad groups. This allowed us to apply our bid adjustments in bulk, which has resulted in smarter spending and increased ROAS from our search campaigns.”– Nathan Eagan, PPC Specialist at Webstaurant

With campaign-level search audiences, you now have more flexibility than ever in how to engage with your customers. Learn more about using campaign-level audiences in the Help Center, and read our best practices guide to learn how you can reach the right audience with a message that resonates.

Last week we covered how mobile has changed shopping behavior during Black Friday weekend. But its effects don’t stop there. Mobile is making it easier to find sales and great deals, encouraging shoppers to browse during traditionally lower traffic seasons; in fact, 22% more mobile shoppers visited retailers via Google in the January after the holiday season, than in the October before.1 For certain categories, like Furniture or Home & Garden, January visits increased up to 39% over their October levels.2 Optimize your strategy to keep your Google Shopping lights on for these savvy shoppers and start the year off with a bang.

There are five categories where retailers saw more traffic coming from Google in January of 2016 than in October 2015. If you sell products in these categories, use the following best practices to expand your reach to shoppers.

1. Use click share to drive more engagement. Products in top positions may see better engagement from shoppers, especially on mobile. The following benchmarks highlight the mobile click share by category you’ll need to be competitive in reaching the top positions. To grow your click share, start by increasing your bids and ad relevance for your priority products.

Category

Mobile Click Share Benchmark3

Electronics

19%

Home and Garden

26%

Health and beauty

30%

Vehicles and Parts

15%

Furniture

22%

2. Create a strategic seasonal campaign. Separate strategic products or items on sale with a separate campaign with a higher campaign priority. A separate campaign enables more flexibility in managing bids and budgets for these products without affecting the rest of your campaigns.

3. Use custom labels to create seasonal product groups. If you plan to sell high-value products in a given category, like winter accessories for vehicles and parts, use custom labels to create a segmented product group in your campaign. This way, you can specifically adjust the bids for winter accessories and then monitor the click share to reach top positions in Google Shopping results.

4. Remarket your products to previous shoppers. Increase the visibility of your products to shoppers who visited your site during the holidays but didn’t convert. Create a remarketing list of previous visitors who may have abandoned their carts at checkout. Chances are, these shoppers are still looking for the best deal available. If you’re having a clearance sale, highlight your lower prices to these shoppers as they continue to browse.

Whether it’s to gear up for the winter or take advantage of clearance sales, these shoppers were eager to continue shopping online last January. Continue adjusting budgets, especially in categories that saw increased traffic last year to reach these shoppers in the New Year.

For more best practices on driving a successful holiday season, visit the help center.

Consumer expectations are higher than ever before. And thanks to mobile, your customers are connected, informed and savvy– they’re becoming supershoppers overnight. As they go shopping this holiday season, it’s more important than ever to connect with your most valuable customers at the exact moment they’re looking for a gift.

Customer Match makes this connection easy by helping you to engage these valuable holiday customers as they’re searching on Google, watching videos on YouTube, and checking promotions on Gmail.

Making Customer Match even better

Starting today, we’re rolling out an easier way to manage your customer lists, giving you more flexibility in reaching your customers during the busy holiday season.

Let’s say that you manage marketing for an online clothing store, and you’re interested in connecting with your active newsletter subscribers. To make it easy for you to keep this customer list up to date, you can now add and remove specific email addresses, or even replace your entire list without having to create a new one. Learn more in the Help Center.

Our partners make it even easier to get started

To save you time before the holidays, we created an upload service to help you get started with Customer Match. We’ve partnered with Merkle, Sailthru, LiveRamp, PMG, Neustar, Epsilon and others to make the upload process turnkey. Some of these partners can even help you expand your customer lists and match rates, too.

We’ve also partnered with Salesforce and Adobe, who have made it easy for you to upload your customer lists directly from within their customer relationship management platforms. If you’d like to learn more about these services, contact your Google account team.

Understanding your customers and being present in the moments that matter to them is critical. Marketers who adjust their plans accordingly with tools like Customer Match will be positioned for a happy holiday season– and a successful 2017.

As another Black Friday weekend wraps, we saw supershoppers continue to turn to their devices for ideas and information as well as use them as a “door-to-the-store.” In fact, Black Friday had the highest mobile shopping searches of any day during Thanksgiving week this year. Thanksgiving Day was a close second, with searches peaking at 8:00 p.m.1

Further, shoppers across the U.S. turned to mobile to not only find the best deals online but also to discover the best deals in-store: Rhode Island and Delaware had the most local shopping search interest -- searches that contained “near me,” hours and stores -- of any states in the nation.2

This strong link between the online and physical world lives beyond the holidays too, and store visits reporting in AdWords is helping advertisers understand it year round. In fact, in just under two years, advertisers globally have measured over 3 billion store visits.

What else did we see in stores over the holiday weekend? Store foot traffic jumped 65% on Black Friday, compared to an average weekend day in November, showing that consumers still care about going into stores for holiday shopping. Clothing, toy, and electronic stores were all popular destinations. Clothing stores and toy stores saw more than double the foot traffic on Black Friday compared to an average weekend day in November.3

Electronics stores were particularly popular, with more than double the foot traffic on Thanksgiving Day and more than triple the foot traffic on Black Friday, compared to an average weekend day in November.4 That makes sense given electronics, including the Nintendo Entertainment System and Sony PS4 Pro, are topping shoppers’ gift lists this year.5

Shoppers also spent more time in stores. For example, in electronics stores, they typically spent between 35 minutes and 1.5 hours on Black Friday compared to 25 minutes on an average day in November. Shopping malls showed a similar increase in visit duration compared to the average day in November.6

What an exciting time of the year. Supershoppers are out in full force, and your AdWords campaigns are ready for them. Last year, on mobile alone, conversion rates jumped 30% on Black Friday and 50% on Cyber Monday when compared to November 1.1

With so much at stake, the AdWords app is the perfect way to stay in touch with your campaigns while still enjoying time away from the office.

Tips for this holiday season

Here are some ways to stay in step with your campaign performance and make last-minute changes throughout the holiday season:

Monitor your budget and bids daily to make sure you’re not missing out on key shopping dates

Make changes to your holiday campaigns, such as pausing or enabling a time-sensitive promotional campaign

Receive critical alerts and notifications, so you can be the first to know if your budget has run out or your ads have been disapproved

Take advantage of opportunities by increasing budgets or bids to drive more profitable conversions in your top-performing campaigns

Review daily performance metrics to understand how your campaigns are performing and if you need to make any last-minute adjustments

The holiday season is upon us, and millions of people around the world are looking forward to unwrapping their new devices and downloading their favorite apps. People have more choice in apps than ever before, making it critical for brands and developers to deliver useful and delightful experiences.

We introduced the next generation of Universal App Campaigns to help marketers show your apps to the iOS and Android customers that matter most, based on your specific business goals. Today, we’re announcing three new innovations to make your holiday app campaigns more engaging and effective.

Create immersive video ads magically with AutoDirector

People love watching video, and with 1B+ users around the world1, YouTube is the place they go to watch.

Now, advertisers using Universal App Campaigns can easily show their app in action using sight, sound, and motion with AutoDirector --- a new innovation that automatically creates immersive and engaging video ads.

AutoDirector gathers your app's description and ratings, selects the best images of your app from the App Store or Google Play, and even picks the music to give your app a soundtrack. Our machine learning models work behind-the-scenes to figure out which version of those videos gets more people to install and engage with your app across YouTube and the 1M+ apps in the Google Display Network.

App promotion video created by AutoDirector for OLX, a Brazilian shopping app

Advertisers all over the world are using videos created through AutoDirector to help their dollars go further with Universal App Campaigns. According to Caio Ferreira, Performance Marketing Manager, OLX Brazil: "The new AutoDirector videos helped the OLX performance marketing team deliver 78% more conversions through AdWords ... Amazing!" Learn more.

New ways to showcase your app on Google Play

People discover apps in a variety of ways, and nearly half of users find new apps while browsing on their phone’s app store2.

Today, we are announcing a new ad placement in Google Play, exclusively for advertisers running Universal App Campaigns. As people browse apps in the Google Play Store, they may see ads in a carousel alongside other app recommendations. For example, we may suggest a new game like Tap Paradise Cove to users who install the YouTube Gaming app.

We encourage advertisers to monitor their campaigns as there may be some natural changes in performance and delivery as we roll out these new placements.

Using Play data to find users who are likely to make a purchase

There’s no better place to be than front and center on Google Play when users are in the market for related apps. But finding customers who are likely to engage with your app past the install is far more complex.

Now, there’s an easier way to find these customers that matter most. Android developers who use in-app billing can now count in-app purchases as conversions in AdWords without any technical integration. Then you can use Universal App Campaigns to automatically find more of these valuable users who are more likely to make an in-app purchase in the future.

And it doesn’t end there. Android and iOS developers can define any in-app actions that matter -- from beating a level of Tap Paradise Cove, to subscribing to HBO Now, to viewing an available hotel room on trivago -- and find new users who are more likely to take those actions. Advertisers can integrate in-app conversion data with AdWords through Firebase Analytics or other third-party measurement providers.

There are 4M+ apps vying for users’ attention this holiday season. With these innovations, we hope Universal App Campaigns will make it easier for you to reach users that will install and engage with your app well into the new year.Posted by Sissie Hsiao, Product Director, Mobile App AdvertisingPlease see our Official Guide to Finding Mobile App Users to learn more about getting started before the holidays.

Smartphones have become consumers’ trusted shopping companions. Mobile shopping searches surged in 2015, passing desktop for the first time on Thanksgiving and Black Friday.1 This year, we see supershoppers continuing to turn to their phones for research and purchases.

In fact, for many consumers, smartphones have become a “door-to-the-store.” And that is particularly true during the holidays. Seventy-six percent of people who search for something nearby on their smartphone visit a related business within a day.2

As we head into the one of the busiest shopping weeks of the year, Google data reveals how consumers will shop and what they'll buy.

Women purchase early while men play the waiting game

Women drive the mobile web, searching for and buying products at twice the rate of men throughout the entire holiday season. The week of Christmas, however, men are more likely to complete their mobile purchases.3

Hatchimals and Nintendo top shoppers’ gift lists this year

Consumers are already on the hunt. Top trending product searches for the first two weeks of November include the Nintendo Entertainment System and Hatchimals -- that’s right, stuffed animals that hatch.4

And while many shoppers can zero in on what they want, others search for inspiration and ideas. Last year, mobile searches related to "unique gifts" grew more than 65% compared to the 2014 holiday season, while mobile searches related to "cool gifts" grew more than 80%.5

On Black Friday, stores are most crowded in the afternoon

Although Black Friday is often associated with early birds, store foot traffic typically peaks in the afternoon between noon and 4:00 p.m.6 But people are shopping all day long. Shopping searches on mobile remain steady throughout the day as shoppers take advantage of Black Friday deals and plan their trips to the store.7

New Englanders love a good deal

Though Black Friday weekend is the rare retail event that pulls even reluctant shoppers into stores, some areas of the country are more interested in deals than others.

By 10:00 a.m. on Black Friday, more than one-quarter of New England shoppers are already on the hunt for a good deal, having stepped inside a department store or shopping center. The rest of the country lags behind an hour.8 And the same is true on mobile: people living in New Hampshire search for more product-related deals than people in other states.9

But even before stores open—and long after they close—consumers continue to shop. Last Thanksgiving, 59% of shopping searches on mobile took place before stores opened. Shopping continued well into the evening, with mobile shopping searches peaking at 8:00 p.m.10

The way consumers shop and behave during the holiday season is rapidly changing, from the way they create their gift lists to the way they purchase. Shoppers are proving that both with their fingertips and their feet.For more data about mobile search trends and shopper foot traffic on Black Friday, check out our infographic “What Google Data Reveals About Black Friday Shoppers.”Natalie Zmuda, Managing Editor, Think with GoogleElizabeth Fabiani, Product Marketing Manager, Google Shopping

Right now supershoppers are online, looking for great holiday gifts to give their family and friends -- from the coolest gadgets to the latest styles. In fact, 4 in 5 smartphone holiday shoppers use their phone during spare moments or while doing other activities.1 This means it’s important for you to be present wherever and whenever people are browsing their favorite apps and websites. To reach these consumers with a perfectly crafted message this holiday season, check out three of our latest display ad innovations:

Deliver beautiful catalog experiences with Gmail ads

During the holidays, shoppers look to their inboxes to get updates from their favorite brands. Now you can be there with beautiful catalog experiences that wow them. When people click on your Gmail ad, it expands to show up to four rich images or videos, with descriptions. For example, a beauty brand can show customers Black Friday deals on eyeshadow trios and matching eyeliner. These ads automatically adapt to any device, so people can scroll through your beautiful imagery wherever and whenever they’re using Gmail.

A beautiful catalog experience in Gmail ads

Customize your message with responsive ads

It’s easier than ever to keep your ads in tune with the season. We recently introduced responsive ads, which help you reach more people because they adapt to fit millions of websites and apps on the Google Display Network (GDN). Responsive ads also give you the flexibility to customize your message for the holidays -- without doing heavy lifting. Simply provide holiday-themed headlines, a description, an image, and your URL -- and Google automatically designs beautiful responsive ads that can run across the GDN. That means it’s a snap to add holiday promotions and seasonal products to your campaigns. iZettle, a payment technology company, used responsive ads and drove a 2x increase in conversion rate compared to text ads.

Help customers find you with location extensions

When people know where to find you this holiday season, they’re more likely to stop by your business. Location extensions for display lets you highlight your address, Google Maps directions, and photos in your ad so you can turn online clicks into foot traffic to your store. The Home Depot used location extensions for display to reach consumers actively browsing their phones near the brand’s most popular stores, driving an 8X in-store ROI.

It’s the most important time of the year for many businesses. Delivering the right message can mean the difference between customers choosing your business -- or another one. Whether you’re trying to drive sales on your website or bring people into your stores, we hope these innovations will help you tell your story and win more customers this holiday season.

As marketers, you’re always looking for more effective ways to achieve business goals - from getting customers to discover your brand to encouraging them to buy something from your site, and everything in between. Today, we are introducing a new AdWords websitethat puts your goals front and center, and shows you which ads work best to accomplish those goals. You can also use this site to find info on our latest ad innovations, success stories from other marketers and best practices guides.

For example, if you’re a multi-channel retailer driving foot traffic into your store, learn about Google solutions like ads with store directions that can help people find your nearest business location.

Or if you just launched a new app and want to make sure the right people discover it, you can find best practices to get more high-value users to engage with your app. You can also draw inspiration from businesses like GrubHub that ran ads to connect with customers the moment they're searching for new apps in the Google Play store.

Check back in on the site regularly as we'll continue to add content. Also, help us ensure that the site is as useful as possible by sharing your feedback. We look forward to hearing your ideas and suggestions.